Boom towns

Shane Green -Nov 25, 2012

Aimee Ryan walks daughter Maddison through the Maiden Gully estate, where she and husband David recently built a house. Photo: Pat Scala

IN THE darkness of the pre-dawn, Cristin Smith would crawl out of bed and make her way from her Airport West home to Watergardens train station. From there, she would catch a train just after 6.30am to Bendigo for a day of classes at the La Trobe University campus, making it back home about 7.30pm.

That was the routine for her first year in her bachelor of education degree. Now, with just two consecutive days of classes, she can drive up early on Tuesday, stay with a friend and come back Wednesday night.

There were plenty of alternatives closer to home and to Melbourne, but Bendigo drew like a magnet. ''I love it up there,'' she explains. ''The atmosphere of La Trobe there is completely different to any uni that I've been through. It's a relaxed atmosphere. It's more of a small community and all the lecturers are really flexible. Everybody's very understanding.'' As for Bendigo, she says, ''there's always something happening''.

At 22, Smith is a walking advertisement for her chosen place of study. The human traffic used to be largely one way: the brighter lights of Melbourne drew people and ambitions, not only students, but those in search of jobs and houses.

But a seismic shift has occurred. Places such as Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong have been transformed, and are drawing people away from the capital, part of a dramatic change in the way Victorians are living and, just as importantly, where they are living.

This is the new Victoria. For decades, planners have dreamed about pushing development to the regions, old-style decentralisation. But what is happening here is something different.

Andrew Butt, lecturer in planning at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, uses the term ''metropolitanisation'' to describe what is happening in places such as Bendigo. ''Its growth isn't so much around it becoming a large central place in the old school geographers' terms, of a place attracting jobs and employment because it's a large centre,'' he says. ''Rather, it's actually because it is increasingly part of the urban network of Melbourne.''

In Melbourne, the debate over planning and development centres on urban sprawl and crumbling infrastructure. But beyond the urban growth boundary, there has been a paradigm shift in thinking that appears to have taken hold over the past decade. As Victoria's population has boomed, the regions are becoming an integral part of the answer, rather than a problem seen in isolation from Melbourne.

The trend was emerging through the 1990s, but the acknowledged symbolic turning point was the 1999 state election, when Jeff Kennett's government lost power on the back of a revolt from the bush.

The rise of the rural independents that enabled the formation of the minority Bracks Labor government changed the game dramatically. Rural Victoria felt the pain of the Kennett government cuts intensely: rail line and hospital closures tore at the very fabric of these communities.

Bracks and his treasurer, John Brumby - hailing from Ballarat and Bendigo respectively - had heard the rebel yell before the election. Once in power, the atmospherics changed.

Prue Mansfield, director of planning and development at the City of Greater Bendigo, recalls someone saying of the impact of the change: ''It was almost as though when Brumby and Bracks said the regions are important, people's views about themselves changed.''

From this point, both sides of politics have embraced planning policies that look outward from Melbourne. In part, this made good political sense, for 1999 showed the electoral power of country voters.

''Since then, governments, no matter who they are, know the importance of regional Victoria,'' says Robert La Rocca, from the Real Estate Institute of Victoria. ''It would take a brave politician nowadays to turn their back on regional Victoria.''

But it was also seen as part of the answer to coping with growth. ''The state government has got a very definite strategy,'' says La Rocca. ''It's how you manage Melbourne's growth by making it more attractive and providing the option of those regional centres. They are a way of managing Melbourne's growth. They are completely integral to it.''

The state government's recent ''Victoria in Future'' population report projects a population of 8.7 million by 2051, an increase of 3.2 million. Almost 2.3 million people will live in regional Victoria.

The report says that residents moving from Melbourne will be the main contributor to the change in regional Victoria's population. Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong - the three largest regional municipalities - will account for almost 40 per cent of the population increase outside metropolitan Melbourne.

Two key factors have enhanced the potential of centres such as Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong: the fast train project and highway improvements. Both ''shrunk'' the distance between the centres and Melbourne.

The upgrading of train services was particularly significant. Until then, these places were largely isolated islands in the bush. The latest V/Line figures show the surge in passenger numbers. In 2011-12, there were an extra 130,000 trips to Geelong, 90,000 to Bendigo and 110,000 to Ballarat. These numbers go to making V/Line the fastest-growing rail business in Australia.

The train has made the ''reverse commuting'' of students such as Cristin Smith possible. La Trobe draws 60 per cent of its 5000 students from outside Bendigo. In some cases, the drawcard is the course on offer. The university's dentistry course is the only under-graduate course offered in Victoria, and the train journey is a regular one for dentistry students.

First-year student Martin Nguyen, 20, who grew up in Burwood, catches the train on Sunday afternoon before classes and returns on Thursday. When he first started, he found Bendigo ''quite country''.

''But when you head into the centre of Bendigo city, it feels just like a suburb of Melbourne, just like heading out to Glen Waverley. The size of the city centre itself is just like a little suburb[an] shopping strip area.''

Fellow dentistry student Jen Cheah, also 20, leaves his Melbourne home and spends two week stints in Bendigo. ''It's definitely working for me,'' he says. ''I thought it was pretty nerve-racking at the beginning, living by myself, especially in a rural place, but once I got used to it, I had some friends coming here from Melbourne as well, the transition was pretty easy.''

Cheah sees similarities between Melbourne and Bendigo. ''You get used to it very quickly. You live here, you study here, you eat here. You do everything here.''

The boom in places such as Bendigo is evident. There seems to be an intensity to the activity that is being reflected in the local economy. In the past three years, there has been an increase of almost 100 per cent in the value of applications for commercial projects to the council.

Prue Mansfield sees it reflecting a confidence to invest. There have also been substantial public sector projects, including the new State Trustees office in the heart of the city, La Trobe University's $25 million paramedical training school and $25 million student accommodation project, and Monash University's $25 million rural GP training facility. Work has also started on a new hospital.

But one of biggest visible changes is the growing number of new housing estates. In the past two years, there has been a 29 per cent increase in the number of subdivision applications.

The council says there is a need for about 1000 new lots a year to meet an annual growth of 2 per cent in Bendigo's population, which now stands at about 105,000.

Rory Costelloe is one of the main drivers behind the new housing developments. He started Villawood Properties in Bendigo 23 years ago, himself part of an earlier generation's search for a better life away from Melbourne.

In 1973, his policeman father and teacher mother transplanted their family to Bendigo. ''They just thought they could bring up five kids in a better lifestyle and a more affordable lifestyle in the country,'' he says.

Certainly, affordability is a critical factor. Costelloe has a block of land for sale in Eaglehawk for $85,000; the average block in more recent times has been about $110,000. This compares with a growth areas land price in Melbourne of about $200,000. ''For some reason, Bendigo has always been a very affordable town,'' says Costelloe. ''That's really the beauty of the whole thing.''

Yet there are signs that prices are on the move, with the REIV's data showing a median house price in Bendigo of $310,000, an increase of 7.5 per cent over the year. This compares with a Melbourne median price of $530,000, and a regional Victoria price of $307,000.

Nevertheless, affordability remains a key attraction. Aimee and David Ryan, with nine-month-old daughter Maddison, bought land in Villawood's Maiden Gully estate for $100,000, and built a $250,000 house, with four bedrooms, two lounges and a rumpus room. They looked at the estates on Melbourne's fringe. ''You had to move so far out, you might as well be in Bendigo,'' Aimee says.

But it is more than just affordability. Bendigo, she says, offers ''proximity to everything you want and need - all the same shops, everything Melbourne has. Same cafes, same everything.''

The Anderson family are about to follow. A two-storey townhouse in Pascoe Vale South was well-suited to Tania and Ben Anderson. Melbourne was their adopted home, after what Tania calls an ''amazing upbringing'' in the stress-free beautiful country around Rochester, in the state's north.

But eight months ago, the Anderson family expanded with the arrival of Jax. The townhouse suddenly seemed smaller, and lately has shrunk even more now Jax has started to crawl.

The couple had been in the housing market for four years, and had even put a couple of unsuccessful offers in. But the spike in prices a couple of years ago meant the only thing in reach was on Melbourne's far-flung fringe estates.

So the Andersons decided to head beyond the estates and keep driving. They have found their new home in Bendigo, the old gold rush city of grand 19th century architecture - but also these days, new estates and building sites. ''The reason why we are moving to Bendigo is pretty much because we can't afford a decent-sized house with a yard here in Melbourne,'' explains Tania.

The family hope to be in their new, four-bedroom home midyear, and enjoying a lifestyle that extends beyond affordability. They see Bendigo offering the advantages of the country upbringing they thrived on, but close enough to Melbourne for Tania to commute so she can return to paid work.

''It's far enough away from Melbourne to be out of the traffic, and the hustle and bustle, but still not too far just to go for a day trip,'' she says.

Drive around the new estates and it is the closeness that strikes you: a five-minute trip takes you to its ornate Victorian heart.

The contrast is also evident: historic, graceful Bendigo and, in the new estates, row after row of freshly minted houses. This is a place clearly in transition.

The City of Bendigo's Prue Mansfield is aware of connection with Bendigo's roots. ''It's very clear that when you look at the bones of Bendigo, that the founding fathers had a vision for a prosperous and successful city,'' she says. ''They actually planned for a grand town hall, but also in Bendigo set up co-operatives for housing, so lower income people could get housing.

''And that's the legacy that we want to continue to build on.''

Getting the mix right is important, for it is not just about new estates. ''I think we need to make sure people have a choice,'' says Mansfield. Only 25 per cent of people in Bendigo live in a family with dependent children, but 85 per cent of the housing stock is three-bedroom homes.

Of course, Bendigo is not just about new arrivals. La Trobe's Andrew Butt says there will be long-standing residents who don't feel part of the ''metropolitanisation''of Bendigo. ''People might see it as an exclusionary gentrification,'' he says. ''It's not by any means everyone's experience. But it's certainly the marketable experience as well.''

In the meantime, the converts are growing in number. About two-thirds of La Trobe's Bendigo students end up working in the regions.

Dentistry student Jen Cheah is looking at the potential beyond Bendigo as his place of study. Before he came to Bendigo, he anticipated moving back to Melbourne when he finished his course.